Blacklisted wifi network?

The signal is very low.. -72dBi in one and -71dBi in another check.. could make it difficult because you are not seeing the signal level at the router end which could be even worse.

Your flatmate could have blocked your computer?? If they put a MAC filter on your computer it can pick up the signal but fail to join..

You do seem to have physical access to the router.. can you also access its setup so you can see what is going on from router side??

Your new info helps a lot.. at least for current problem.

Let me do the second question first.

• why does it say the network is blacklisted, when it is not blacklisted anymore when I am closer to it?

Clearly your computer is not blacklisted.. once you got over the signal problem.. your computer joined without issues.

So reference to blacklisting is purely internal on the laptop.

Mon Feb 18 18:49:56.217 AutoJoin: <airportd[63]> -[CWXPCInterfaceContext __isProfileBlacklisted:]: Network Waltzing Wifi is blacklisted.

Almost nothing in google ..

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7649626

Fairly old thread.. but I would say it is a very Mac solution to the problem of which wireless to join.

Here is a guess.. After several tries to connect.. the Mac has decided.. this wifi AP is not going to work and is blacklisted in the Mac from further attempts.

The terms used in the log indicate this is the case.

InterfaceContext __isProfileBlacklisted

The Mac should then continue to check for wifi AP down the list. However to get the Mac to attempt to join the same wifi SSID it probably needs to be shut down or wireless profiles deleted and renewed as suggested in the earlier thread.

The first why is it so .. question is a lot harder.

it used to work just fine when i was at the dining table or on the couch, about 6 metres from the router. Why is this suddenly too far away? Even my own network (which is much further away) does reach the dining table, okay it is very slow and barely works, but it does connect. So why does my roommates network suddenly have this problem? I am very sure no changes were made to any settings or to the location of the router.

When wireless connections are on the edge.. very close to failure.. a tiny change could trigger it failing. I am guessing when you did not have a problem you never bothered to actually check the signal quality at your end or the router end.

So you don't have a comparison.. but I am guessing a change of channel, increased interference.. or just simple aging of components has led to slightly lower Tx or Rx power or sensitivity.

One thing I always check is the router side. In your case you have a comparison at least between your own working network and the failed housemate network.

So on the computer hold down the option key and click the wireless fan.. you will get the following.

On the other end.. is the trick.. and depends on the router.. some give lots of details.. others almost none.

On my Asus wireless router I am given excellent details.

idx MAC Associated Authorized RSSI PSM SGI STBC Tx rate Rx rate Connect Time

40:E2:30:92:26:85 Yes Yes -61dBm No Yes Yes 263.3M 585M 51:08:54

We used to have fixed space fonts to show this better.. but you can see signal level of the Mac is -61dBm at router.. whereas signal level of the router is -55dBm at the Mac.. and that is much poorer signal from Mac than the router .. as expected.. since the router has large external antennas whereas the Mac is tiny inbuilt.

If I join to airport router..

Much closer to the computer but poorer N wireless performance.

You can hover your mouse over the link which brings up greater details.

You can see the computer is far superior to the old airport express.

To do comparison you need all the numbers.. signal levels, channels being used, and link speeds from both ends.